Cool!

 It is good to see such a clear step by step approach to your project. There is no doubt about horns having an appeal that is like no other. People tend to love them or not. I think that there is no equal in the bass region.

I might have missed it, but what adhesive do you recommend for this build? I tend toward Gorilla glue to fill in gaps, and make a tight bond.
 Also, is there a picture of your table saw? I am betting it has a decent out feed table and fence.

The glue I've been using is just plain old Elmers wood glue.  I've also used some bondo, but have not needed that much.  Is Gorilla glue any better than Elmers?  I have no complaints about strength, but if it could fill a little better and / or be a little easier to work with / sand after it dries I would be interested.  What type of Gorilla glue?  Don't you have to use water to activate it?

The saw question is an interesting one because of all that happened coincidentally with this build.  I grew up with a cheap table saw.  When my Grandfather died, we inherited a better table saw but, looking back, it was still a piece of crap.  The saw sat in the middle of the workshop, taking up way too much room, and usually acted more "table" than "saw".  In 1980, fresh out of the Army, one of my first purchases was a brand new radial arm saw.  A few years later, now with my own workshop, I realized that there is never any reason to go behind a radial arm saw and therefore it can be bolted to the wall and built into the workbench.

Here is an old picture of that saw making the first bevel cut on my first corner horn build (using 3/4 MDF).  




The bevel angle is so steep that the guard has to come off, and the only way it works properly is to feed the work into the saw in the non-recommended direction so the saw blade spin tends to push the work down and pull it away from you.  The recommended feed direction, with the saw blade spin lifting the work and pushing it back at you, was impossible to keep the wood from lifting up off the table and destroying the bevel.  It looks dangerous, but using gloves and having a healthy respect for just how dangerous those saw blades can be got me through it with all my fingers still attached.

So anyway, this year my table top was getting pretty bad and I decided to replace it before taking on the corner horn build.  Turns out the table top is 1" HDF.  Rather than find out where I had to go and how much I had to spend to get 1" HDF, I somehow got looking on Craigs list and found there were about a dozen 10" Craftsman radial arm saws for sale, with most of them priced between $50 and $100 (give away pricing).  I found one for $100 that had a brand new table top, courtesy of a safety recall, that had never been installed.  After getting the saw home I decided it was better than mine and swapped them out.  I now had a spare functional saw that I planned on selling later.

It didn't take too long, one cut I believe, to realize that when you've got the saw set up to do an angle or a bevel cut, you inevitably need to make a straight cut and don't want to lose the current saw settings.  So, I now have two:



As you can see, the one is set up for a cross cut bevel and the other for straight cuts.  So far, so good.


Dan

Donnie

By "silicon" do you mean 100% silicon calk?  (certainly you don't mean silicon spray).  What does the ice cube do?


Dan

Dan, yes calk.
The ice cube helps smooth it out. The silicone doesnt stick to it so your not smearing it around.

Using Gorilla glue is a new way thinking, that's for sure. Yes, you need to lightly wet one surface, and then when applying the glue to the other surface, I like to make sure it penetrates that surface well. I will even add a small bead of glue after that, so that it can expand enough for any small gaps. Letting it skin over for maybe 30 minutes, the excess can be removed with a glue chisel or Exacto knife. If you do it too soon, the glue might get smeared on the blade, and that is just one more thing to deal with. It is extremely strong.
 Choice number is one of the newer glues put out by Tite Bond or other manufacturers. They are as strong as Gorilla glue, and easier to use.

Nice build, cant wait to see if finished.
I never thought about angling the drivers to fit your position, great idea.

One little trick I learned when dealing with silicone is Windex the original stuff. Because of the Ammonia it will let you shape the silicone without sticking, so spray the bead down and use your finger to shape it. Once the Windex dries it lets the silicone dry and perfect seems.

After a little trigonometry, lets see...10th grade was trig at age 15, that means there's about 50 years of rust...oh well.  I remember enough to figure that a 2x4 cut diagonally makes just about the right angle for my new mounting jig that will fix the driver angle and allow for a removable baffle board.  Further, it should accommodate a 6" or 8" driver, maybe even a 10".





Yea, ok, so maybe its a little ugly.  But its my shop and I don't have any WAF to worry about.





Add a little paint:





And set it in the corner:





By the way, isn't that a great color match job Home Depot did on my paint?  Its suppose to match the other speakers (the cream color ones, not the brown ones...although maybe the green they came up with is about half way in between).  Thats the new $50 a gallon paint Home Depot has been advertising as no primer needed, one coat covers all, guaranteed.  Well, after being assured by the paint guy that it would cover raw plywood in one coat without a primer, I had him mix the paint.  After I painted the cabinets and it didn't cover in one coat I read the warranty:  not valid for painting over uncoated or porous surfaces and only valid if your color falls within the "Marquee interior One-Coat Color Collection".  If I knew I would need 2 coats, I bet I could have found something cheaper than $50 a gallon. At least I can try and get the color corrected...a bit more yellow, and maybe a dash of red.


Dan

I'd do several coats of paint then color sand it flat.
Sanding is sort of Zen for me, I'm weird that way.

Audio Nirvana Super 6.5's were the first pair of drivers I tried.  I've had these speakers a long time, tried them in a number of different cabinets, and have never found a good home for them.

Fs = 48 hz
Qts = .21
Vas = 1.16 cubic feet

My first impressions were pretty bad.  The music sounded thin and tinny.  Bass was good, but didn't go down all that low.  My spectrum analyzer said the frequency response was all over the place.  I had not sealed the speakers to the wall, they are just propped up in the corners, so there was that I could try.  I was thinking maybe its time to do something with the room acoustics, but the answer was simpler than that.  I had played these speakers so little that they had not broken in yet.  As I let them play for a couple days, I have never heard such a change gradually take place.  The sound filled out, the bass got deeper, and the overall sound went from yuck! to wow!


Dan

Next I had to try a pair of 8" drivers.  I spent a ridiculous amount of money a while back on a pair of 8" HiEnd fullrange drivers from Hong Kong that are suppose to rival Lowther's.  Somewhat disappointing up until now, I swapped them in.  Very easy and quick to swap drivers.











Fs = 31.5 hz
Qts = .25
Vas = 4.46 cubic feet

Again, a little disappointing at first, but after a day or so they started sounding good...Really good.  One thing that is amazing, and somewhat unexpected, is how big the sweet spot and sound stage are.  I knew from my first build, with the drivers at 45 degrees, that the sweet spot was too close to the front wall.  The sweet spot has moved back, as planned, but also seem to be focused all the way up to the front wall.  So it doesn't seem to matter much where you are, if you are between the speakers its sounding pretty darn good.  And, with the speakers in the corners, you are ALWAYS between the speakers.

Now, lets talk bass.  I like my bass.  I'm use to a pair of 15" sub's firing into each corner (the brown 2' x 2' cubes in the back ground on some of the pics).  More recently I've been working with an 8" full range plus a 10" sub in the cream color units that I run direct from a 4 channel amp and a DSP.  These corner horns may not go as low
as what I'd like in a perfect world, and I can find some songs that have a note or two that isn't as spectacular as it could be, but Holy Crap, these things put out a lot of bass for a single 6.5" or 8" driver...enough to keep me happy without a sub.


Dan

Your build is admirable in quality. It is worth any effort to make it the best that it can be. Paul Klipsch stated that raising his corner horns off of the floor destroyed the lowest octave of bass. Maybe this was an exaggeration, as the horns that I built were on casters, and the bass was still beyond description. just a thought.
I have a greater concern that there is a bonnet on your cabinet that will definitely will cause diffraction, and affect dispersion as well. I totally understand the need for a dust bonnet, but one that can be removed during playback.
Finally, I would suggest that you go ahead and build out the wall behind the speakers, as this is what completes the horn, and a space behind the horn won't be a good effect. First thought was using concrete board, but sheet rock or even MDF would be better.

 Not sure how I missed the fact that the bonnets are completely removable. Anyway, that is good news to me. A pretty good idea as well from Steve, dealing with the space behind the speaker. I can't think of a cooler set of speakers in a shop or home. Good corners are hard to come by.

I just stumbled across this thread and really enjoyed it. Thanks! BTW, I like the look of the offset driver setup. Nice visual tension, the form complexity following function.....

Building the wall out with 3/4" MDF and 1 1/8" fir strips (2 x 4 ripped into 3 pieces) brings the wall out even with the cinder blocks.  When the corner horn was pushed back in place, it was apparent how much change there was.  A little calk, a little more paint, and then I'll screw the corner horn to the MDF for a semi-permanent installation.

That,s an Audio Nirvana 6.5" standard speaker.  The standard line was discontinued many years ago, maybe 10?, and was my favorite, as well as the cheapest.  It seems to be a little more relaxed and easy going than the super line.  My stock is down to a single 6.5" and a single 8".  Right now I've got the 6.5" on the left and the 8" on the right which seems to work just fine.  I think my left ear may be a little better than my right - at least my image usually seems to be shifted slightly left.



Dan

I keep eyeballing these drivers, wonder how they would work for your application?
https://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-ps220-8-8-point-source-full-range-neo...

Dan,
I've been eyeballing the 8" Daytons for a transmission line that I build that uses $12 GRS 8" drivers.
They might be a nice upgrade.

Donnie

PM sent


Dan

It may be hard to explain but I do think Synergy is the key. That speaker in that horn assembly in that room configuration just "works" better than others. There may be another speaker that works even better but will you spend your life trying different speakers out? (If it was me, the answer may be 'yes' as I get obsessive about these things, which is one reason I haven't pried the hatch open over this sort of wormhole!)

Great looking speakers and enjoy the sound! Great work!

Since all the Decware posts from 12-6 and 12-7 seemed to have disappeared, I'm reposting (and adding more)

After a couple of days and cycling through all my speakers, including a pair I forgot I had, a set of 6.5" Fostex FE165K.  Fs = 50 hz, Qts = .34, Vas = 1 cubic foot, I've come to the conclusion that they all sound remarkable similar.  The one exception, as expected, is the ultra cheap Pioneer coax which sounds dull and lifeless compared to the others.  There's just no sparkle with that speaker that exists with all the others.





Another thing that surprised me is that there is not much difference between the 6" and the 8" drivers, when the difference has been huge in every other cabinet I've had them in.  For now I'm going with the Fostex 6.5" with the Dayton 6.5" being a close second.  I'll eventually put the 8" speakers back in all my other cabinets.




Throughout it all, the Zkit60 has been driving things, and doing a wonderful job.  The top one in the lower right (covered up by the date) is the one I've been using.

I also built a couple of boxes to store my extra speakers in.  Seem to work good and keep out the dust.  Nice hinges too!







Dan

If you look back at previous pictures posted in this thread, 3 pics back shows a brown cube next to the corner horn.  This is one of two subs.  Its 2' x 2' x 2' with one corner cut off and turns out being a 5.5 cubic feet ported box loaded with an old Series II 15" speaker from Parts Express.

I have been using these subs for years and have always been happy with them.  I've tried a number of more exotic boxes, but have always come back to the simple ported box as being the best for my setup.

Since building my large F15 open baffles, my corner horns have not played much music in the last two years.  For one reason or another, I began wondering how the corner horns would work as subs.  I have a number of 10" Dayton "classic Subs" lying around from previous  builds, Parts Express DCS255-4, and with a little work I managed to squeeze them in.







Unfortunately, the corner horn frequency response falls off a cliff at 40 hz, but it sure sounds great on most of the music I listen to.  There are a few songs where I dearly miss the low bass, but in reality, they are few and far between.

I never had issues with the ported boxes, but this bass is faster, tighter, and noticeably better.  There are fewer shakes and rattles going on where objects in the building, or the building itself, will vibrate objectionably.   I'm also seeing that one corner horn may work as well or even better than both in supplying even bass throughout the room.  So it seems like the one 10" speaker is doing a very good job at replacing two 15's.

Now if there were just a way to get the frequency response down.  This might be a lot easier if I only need to build (and find room for) one unit...

Currently the corner horn has a 2' x 2' footprint, is 3.5' tall, and goes down to 40 hz (barely).  Anyone have a clue what a 3' x 3' footprint that's 6.5' tall would do?  Steve - I know you mentioned once you thought it might be fun to scale one of these things up...I have some time...(I'm not going to Decfest this year).


Dan